BUEC Winter 2025 Wrap-Up

The BUEC Winter 2025 season is over! All series have been played and all the points have been counted. 113 universities have joined the fight to be crowned Esports University of the Year, though we'll see who that is by the end of Spring 2026. In the meantime, let's see what happened this Winter...

Top 10 Summary

The University of Southampton are the new Winter champions, with the previous winner the University of Warwick tailing closely behind in second place, followed by University College London in third, King's College London in fourth and Nottingham Trent University in fifth. 

For the first time, the University of Southampton sit atop the Winter leaderboard, improving on their second place Winter position last year. We will have to wait and see if they are able to keep this amazing momentum going throughout the Spring BUEC season to secure the title of Esports University of the Year. 

After seven years on top, the University of Warwick have fallen from grace into the silver medal position. Trailing only 41 points behind first place, there's every chance that they can still reclaim their trophy by the end of Winter.

Finishing 29th at the end of last year, University College London have made massive strides to secure third place on the points table at the end of Winter. This marks not only their highest position, but also their first podium placement - always watch out for the underdogs! 

This was not the only PB, with King's College London one-upping their fifth place position in Winter 2023 with a fourth place finish this Winter. Merely seven points behind UCL, there definitely seems to be some London rivalry afoot...

Wrapping up the top five spots we have Nottingham Trent University who also broke their own record, climbing a whopping eleven places from last Winter to lock down fifth place. 

The University of the West of England achieved their highest placement yet, coming sixth. With their first top 10 finish in two years, they have knocked last year's sixth place Cardiff University into seventh. 

Another newbie to the top 10 group, College of Esports find themselves in eight place. After debuting in the top ten last year, the University of Manchester continue their impressive performance, finishing in ninth. 

Finally, we have the University of Portsmouth in tenth, dropping from their bronze medal position last Winter. Can they climb back up to the podium? 

The Top 10

You can see the points table overview here. See the full points breakdown here.

New Universities Competing
We've also seen the addition of eight new universities that have competed this year that didn't last year:

• University of Suffolk
• Arts University Plymouth
• University of South Wales
• Arts University Bournemouth
• University of the Highlands and Islands
• St Mary's University
• Ulster University 
• University of East London

Best Regional Esports Universities
There has been fierce competition right across the UK with the regional rivalry hotting up. The standings for this season are:

• Best in Scotland: University of Edinburgh - Held its position, Glasgow trailling 9 places
• Best in Wales: Cardiff University - Overtaken Swansea by 7 places
• Best in Northern Irelands: Queen's University Belfast - Held its position
• Best in the South of England: University of Southampton - Claimed 1st place
• Best in London: University College London - Overtaken KCL by 1 place
• Best in the Midlands: University of Warwick - Dropped to second 
• Best in the North: University of Manchester - Held its position in top 10 universities

The Top Universities for Each Game
You don't always have to win the tournament to earn the most points for any given game. Here are the universities who scored the most points:

• Apex Legends: University of York - 146 points, 2 teams. Highest placement: 1st
• Counter-Strike 2: University College London - 393 points, 4 teams. Highest placement: 5th, with all four teams in division 1
• League of Legends: University of Warwick - 477 points, 10 teams. Highest placement: 13th, achieved by the 'Academy' team
• Marvel Rivals: Royal Holloway University of London - 218 points, 2 teams. Highest placement: 2nd 
• Overwatch 2: University of Southampton - 355 points, 8 teams. Highest placement: 5th
• Rainbow Six Siege X: University of the West of England - 184 points, 3 teams. Highest placement: 1st
• Rocket League: University of Southampton - 313 points, 5 teams. Highest placement: 7th
• Splatoon 3: University of Portsmouth - 99 points, 5 teams. Highest placement: 2nd, with two teams in division 1 
• Teamfight Tactics: University of Manchester - 117 points, 7 players. Highest placement: 1st (Double Up) 
• VALORANT: University of Southampton - 460 points, 11 teams. Highest placement: 3rd
• University Fighting Games (UFG): Manchester Metropolitan University - 23 points, 5 players. Highest placement: 2nd (2XKO) 

Repeat Champions
We have an impressive list of teams to shout out this year who have claimed repeat BUEC victories:

• Rainbow Six Siege X: Gatekeepers, University of the West of England - 4th Victory
• Rocket League: Roehampton Esports, Roehampton University - 5th Consecutive Victory
• Teamfight Tactics: Adi/Para, Brunel University - 2nd Victory 

A special shoutout to Roehampton, who now hold the record for the most wins in BUEC, going undefeated for 3 seasons straights! That's 68 matches won in a row, with their last loss being vs Lincoln Park on 17th March 2024.

A big thank you to our partners for their consistent support and belief in our community: BUCS, Monster Energy, Pot Noodle, Pringles and Vita Student.

A warm welcome to those who have newly joined the community this year and thank you to the players and teams who have come back to compete. 

Keep your eyes and ears out for sign-up announcements for our Spring season in January! 

Winning Teams and Players of Winter 2025 

Apex Legends

First place: Glizzy Guzzlers (University of York)
Second place: Imperial Knights (Imperial College London)
Third place: KCL Lions (King's College London)

Counter-Strike 2

First place: EU CS (University of Exeter)
Second place: Soton BlueDeer (University of Southampton)
Third place: KCL TaoTieh (King's College London)

League of Legends

First place: Oxford Orangutans (University of Oxford) 
Second place: KCL Lions (King's College London)
Third place: Imperial Esports (Imperial College London)

Women & Non-Binary League of Legends 

Joint first place: Spectrum Soldiers (Birmingham City University & Manchester Metropolitan University)
Joint first place: Meownamune (University of Westminster & King's College London)

Marvel Rivals

First place: The Bath Haunts You (University of Bath) 
Second place: Watch My Clips (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Third place: Portsmouth Paladins (University of Portsmouth)

Overwatch 2 

First place: Izaacs Dementia Ward (University of Strathclyde)
Second place: Oxford Omnics (University of Oxford)
Third place: evil jonkler part 2 (University of Edinburgh) 

Women & Non-Binary Overwatch 2

First place: MeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeow (University of Southampton & University of Nottingham)
Second place: Cardiff Krakens (Cardiff University & Keele University)

Rainbow Six Siege X 

First place: Gatekeepers (University of the West of England)
Second place: Swansea Storm X (Swansea University)
Third place: STG X (University of Southampton)

Rocket League

First place: Roehampton Esports (University of Roehampton)
Second place: Loughborough Lions (Loughborough University)
Third place: UoB Bottlers (University of Birmingham)

Splatoon 3 

First place: Annakists (University of Staffordshire)
Second place: Portsmouth Paladins (University of Portsmouth) 
Third place: TENTACLE NUKE INBOUND (University of Manchester) 

Teamfight Tactics (Solo)

First place: Adi (Brunel University)
Second place: Charlie Anderson (University of Leeds)
Third place: Sam Scott (University of the West of England)

Teamfight Tactics (Double Up)

First place: Pandoras Hope (University of Manchester)
Second place: 3 Cost Rerolls Only (University of Oxford)
Third place: Its an 8th (University of Warwick)

VALORANT 

First place: QMUL Aces (Queen Mary University of London)
Second place: Made in Bristol (University of Bristol)
Third place: Southampton Reckoning (University of Southampton)

Women & Non-Binary VALORANT

First place: RoeWick (University of Warwick & Roehampton University)
Second place: cheese and chapati (University College London & College of Esports)

2XKO (UFG)

First place: the_ceo_of_swag (University of Abertay Dundee)
Second place: moldynugget (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Third place: yimbo3560 (Aberystwyth University) 

Guilty Gear Strive (UFG) 

First place: dualityofman (Imperial College London)
Second place: logical_builder (University of Glasgow)
Third place: MyOwnFailures (Sheffield Hallam University)

Street Fighter 6 (UFG)

First place: yimbo3650 (Aberystwyth University)
Second place: launch_fgc (University of Kent)
Third place: zano_lok (University of Abertay Dundee)

Tekken 8 (UFG)

First place: xd.dark (University of Leeds)
Second place: homeless2458 (Nottingham Trent University)
Third place: moldynugget (Manchester Metropolitan University) 

Will Southampton be able to hold onto the title next season, or will they be surpassed by another university? Keep your eyes and ears open for sign-up announcements for our Spring season in January.

FOLLOW NSE
Twitter | Instagram | TikTok